1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network camera management system and a network camera management method for managing a camera connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various network cameras which can be connected to a so-called IP network communicating under an IP protocol have been developed as video cameras such as a monitoring camera. Such network cameras connected to the IP network respectively have an IP address and are managed by the IP address thereof.
When such network camera is connected to the IP network, it is managed by a server connected to the network, and images captured by the network camera are displayed on a display unit provided in the server, and are recorded in a recording unit.
Generally, there are a plurality of cameras while connecting the cameras to the network, but in the case of a large-scale monitoring camera system, sometimes there are also a plurality of servers.
In order to view an image of a desired camera in a monitoring camera system provided with a plurality of cameras, it is necessary for a surveillant to create a layout in which IP cameras are assigned beforehand, and then locate the desired camera from the layout, or select a server managing the desired camera before selecting the camera on the supervision screen acquired by the server.
Patent documents 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-128623) discloses an example of a structure in which a plurality of cameras are connected to a server via a network and remote surveillance is performed.
However, in the case of a large-scale camera system provided with a plurality of servers, it is necessary to select the server, and the operation is complex, and therefore there exists a problem that it takes a long time to select the image captured by a desired camera. Even if there is only one server, if there are a plurality of cameras, the operation to locate the desired camera is complex.
There is also a system provided with a special controller connected to the server, however a system using a conventional special controller also has a problem that an operation of selecting a camera is very difficult.